Authenticating the identity of an individual is an increasingly important function for operators of communication networks, providers of services over communication networks, entities who receive payment for products and services over communications networks, and others due to the growing problems of identity theft and identity fraud. The theft or misrepresentation of information about the identity of an individual used to obtain access to information, products, services, or anything else of value (personally identifiable information), generally referred to as identify theft and identify fraud, are serious problems that can cost companies millions of dollars every year, and can affect a wide range of enterprises, including online retailers, insurance companies, healthcare companies, financial institutions, government agencies, and others. For example, according to the Department of Justice, about 8.6 million households in the United States experienced some form of identity theft in 2010. The total financial loss resulting from this theft was approximately $13.3 billion. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, insurance fraud costs the United States over $40 billion per year, and healthcare fraud costs an estimated $80 billion a year.
Various means of authentication of the identity of an individual have been used in an effort to prevent identity theft and identity fraud. Access to services over a communication network is often controlled by requiring a username (i.e., a unique identifier) and a password (i.e., an additional piece of “secret information”). Further, some additional non-public information can be required by the service provider, such as a social security number, an answer to a “secret question” beyond a password, and the like. However, such security measures are vulnerable to identity theft and identity fraud because ensuring the security of such information is difficult. Various types of biometric identifiers (unique physical characteristics) have been used to assist in verifying an authentication, ranging from non-electronic fingerprinting to electronic voice recognition, thumb scans, iris scans, palm scans, face scans, physiological scans, and the like. No identifier, however, is foolproof, whether non-biometric or biometric. Every biometric reader may be subject to “false accept” and “false reject” errors, and as with non-biometric identifiers, ensuring the security of biometric identifiers is difficult. Further, as with non-biometric identifiers, the reliability of biometric identifiers may change depending on the particular transaction in which the individual's identity is authenticated. The reliability of an individual's identify may change, for example, depending on whether the identity is always authenticated in the same location or is sometimes authenticated in different locations.